Schalmont deals with second school threat in three days

Schalmont deals with second school threat in three days

ROTTERDAM -- Schalmont Central School District officials and Rotterdam police on Monday investigated threats made by a student on social media, the second Schalmont student to make such threats over the past week, police said.

Rotterdam police on Monday night notified district officials that a 12-year-old male student threatened violence against the school. Police interviewed the student and his parents and determined there was no credible threat.

“There was no evidence that would suggest there was an immediate threat -- no overt plan,” Rotterdam Police Lt. Bill Male said Tuesday.

Male said the incident was still under investigation, and that it was too early to know whether police would bring charges against the student. Schalmont school officials said in a post on the district's website that the student did not attend school on Tuesday and that he would be disciplined under the district’s code of conduct.

"We have a commitment to the safety and security of our students, staff and visitors," Schalmont Superintendent Carol Pallas said in the post. "We must take all threats -- real and perceived -- seriously."

Monday's incident came less than two days after a 13-year-old Schalmont student was investigated over alleged social media threats that suggested violence against the Mohonasen Central School District, also located in Rotterdam. Police interviewed that student and determined there was no a credible threat. Male said it was unlikely police would bring charges against that student.

But he also warned that police take the threats seriously.

“These are obviously serious,” he said. “If these threats are being made, we take them seriously; they will be investigated.”

Other Capital Region districts have also been grappling with a spate of threats this fall, with teenage students in Niskayuna and Ballston Spa schools being charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony.